Runaway (National Film Board of Canada Collection)

Story and characters by Cordell Barker

Adapted by Sarah Howden

Firefly Books

978-0-2281-0079-9

pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2019

Cordell Barker's short NFB film Runaway was released in 2009 but its black humour and commentary on greed and self-importance will now reach a new audience of young readers with this adaptation to print medium. Though the 9-minute film has very little discernible dialogue, Sarah Howden's adaptation fills in the narrative about a cow walking on railway tracks when a train is left without its conductor.

From Runaway by Cordell Barker, adapted by Sarah Howden

Sarah Howden's narrative begins with a commentary about how uncomplicated cows are compared to humans who are "always up to something." (pg. 9) There are the wine-drinking, cigar-smoking and billiards-playing top-hatted rich men, and one lady with her black dog, in the first car behind the engine. In the next car with their livestock are the pointy-hatted folk who are crowded to the rafters and who pass the time with music and beer. In the caboose, three train crewmen sleep. As "They were all going about their business, no questions asked" (pg. 14), the little dog escapes into the locomotive. The Captain, not missing an opportunity to ingratiate himself with a rich patron, shoves back the fireman and is promptly bitten by the urchin-like canine. While the rich woman takes the Captain back into her chamber to tend to his wound, the train is left without a man at the helm. The train is now a runaway and all the more after the Fireman falls onto the levers when the cow is hit. (It's okay. The cow survives.)

As the Fireman searches for the Captain, the oblivious patrons continue with their preferred activities. The train loses its caboose on a wild ride down a mountain and destroys a bridge after passing over it but the worst is when there is insufficient fuel to get the train up the slope on the other side of the bridge. Will the passengers work together to find a solution?

From Runaway by Cordell Barker, adapted by Sarah Howden

How the story in the print edition of Runaway ends is up for interpretation though the cow does live to see a glorious sunset. The rich people do take advantage of the common people, promising them money for their clothes to be used for fuel, and then unhitch their car and take back the money. The Captain and lady and her dog eventually reappear and get caught up in the efforts to save the train. But how much can they do when a train is hurtling up and over hills out of control?

Cordell Barker's story takes the reader on an alarming ride of both a train without a conductor and a culture without goodwill. A little benevolence and the tale of this train and its occupants could have had a far different ending. But, with greed and self-importance overriding all common sense, this train is doomed. Regrettably, Runaway is a stark metaphor for our narcissistic world, even more so than in 2009, by reflecting a society that emphasizes taking care of the self before all else. Only the Fireman can see the need to put self aside but even he cannot prevent the disaster when all work against the whole and think only of the self.

From Runaway by Cordell Barker, adapted by Sarah Howden

As in any graphic novel, the art helps tell the story. The art in Runaway is strong in its depiction of the different classes of people, with the rich in their train car decorated in rose with food artwork and the commoners in their earthy-coloured attire living with their food animals. Even the conductor, expecting to be called Captain, aspires to more in his highly-decorated bicorn hat and jacket festooned with golden epaulets. But the art also tells us what the Fireman is thinking, how the cow conducts herself as she needs, and that the rich on the train take glee in taking advantage of the poor and even delight in their demise.

Because Cordell Barker uses dialogue sparingly in the short film, Sarah Howden needed to "fill-in-the-blanks" for young readers for whom the complexity of the circumstances might not be evident. They will understand the story, just as they might understand a fairy tale, but to give them insight into the greater picture of Runaway, Sarah Howden highlights the humans' actions from a distant perspective, trying to understand what they do and why, all which will help explain the outcome of the story. Her words give landscape to the story without explaining everything, allowing young readers to apply their own visual literacy skills and interpretation to the allegory of what can go wrong when self and greed override all.

🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥

The original short film is available on the NFB's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/qUGHv2VAESE and is an accomplishment of movement, tension and social statement. Just be prepared: it's only a happy ending for the cow in this version.

Uploaded by NFB to YouTube on May 26, 2017.

The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit

Written by Inna Gertsberg

Illustrated by Mike Lowery

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-552-7

44 pp.

Ages 4-8

2017

I've waited too long to review this gem of a non-fiction book that can be used to teach transportation, mapping, communities and so much more.  With the stories and art blending together into a fascinating depiction of travel on water and land within the city of Zoom, The Way Downtown includes everyone and their need to get around safely and efficiently.

From The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit

by Inna Gertsberg 

illus. by Mike Lowery

(image from mikelowery.com)

Dr. Brodie is our first traveller, making her way from her island home by ferry and then cycling to the museum where she works.  In addition to learning about ferries and water transport, the reader learns about cycling and bike sharing.  Young Robbie is visiting his Aunt Raisa and he travels with her by bus and subway, all the while taking photographs of the urban wildlife.  Agent Theodore Rybka is on a mission to deliver an important package.  He takes multiple train and subway rides to remain incognito and confuse would-be followers of the spy. The busking Zanies family are heading to Great Park, like all our travellers, to perform.  Though public transit aficionados, using monthly transit passes, they lose Zach along the way and learn the efficiency of relocating separated parties. Finally, Boris, the guide dog, takes his visually impaired partner Guy via sidewalk and light rail train to meet their friend Leslie.

From The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit 

by Inna Gertsberg

illus. by Mike Lowery

These are but 5 stories out of a billion taking place because of public transit in the city of Zoom but they give a snapshot of how different people live their lives and get around, whether visiting, working, or playing.  Readers will learn about all manner of public transit: how to use it, what to expect, paying for it, etiquette, and more.  From Lost & Founds, to repairs that take place, as well as guide dogs, The Way Downtown is an informative and entertaining read about getting around in the city. It's a fun look at the everyday concept of travel by public transit (none of the stories have travellers in cars) to see the benefits and intricacies of urban movement from place to place. Though I might see Toronto, my hometown and the residence of author Inna Gertsberg, in the city of Zoom, I suspect that Zoom could be any and every city with multiple public transit provisions, a great park and other urban features likes hospitals, a zoo, museum and observatory.

From The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit

by Inna Gertsberg 

illus. by Mike Lowery 

(image from mikelowery.com)

Mike Lowery, who illustrated Maureen Fergus's award-winning The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten (Kids Can Press, 2013) and Andrew Larsen's A Squiggly Story (Kids Can Press, 2016), gets in the busyness and complexity of an urban centre like Zoom which keeps all its people moving via many modes of public transit.  There's lots to notice and details to pick out and Mike Lowery makes The Way Downtown an urban Where's Waldo? of movement and stories being lived.  The organization of the book which resembles a graphic novel with information embedded in maps, graphic organizers and more is both inviting and comprehensive, as well as engaging.

From The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit

by Inna Gertsberg 

illus. by Mike Lowery

Take a worthwhile foray into public transit, whether in a classroom with young students learning about transportation and communities (the glossary provided is worthwhile) or with your own children before a trip or to see themselves in and about their own neighbourhoods, by getting on board The Way Downtown: Adventures in Public Transit.

Mayann's Train Ride

by The Honourable Mayann Francis

Illustrated by Tamara Thiébaux Heikalo

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77108-348-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-9

October 2015

The Honourable Mayann Francis, first female African-Nova Scotian to hold the position of  Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, was once a young girl who took a memorable train trip with her family and, while seeing important sights, learned what it means to be part of a warm and open-hearted community.  This is her story.

In the 1950s, when she was just 9 years old, Mayann accompanied her parents and sister Isabel on a trip to visit family in New York City where her father, George Francis, archpriest of the African Orthodox Church of Whitney Pier (Sydney), Cape Breton would also speak at a Harlem church.  This was a big deal for the little girl for, though she lived in a diverse community that exposed her to people from faraway places, she was going to travel by overnight train, stop in Montreal to visit old friends and, almost most importantly, she got to carry a very-grown-up purse she had purchased using her savings.  

There is a reason I write “almost most importantly.” Though she appreciates all who notice the beautiful green purse in which she carries a small notebook recording all she experiences on her trip, “dreaming of showing off the purse to my family in New York”, Mayann she loses it on a subway after a trip to the Bronx Zoo.  No matter the efforts to locate it or to console Mayann, it “was gone forever, along with the five-dollar bill and my notebook full of memories.”  However, the congregation at the church in Harlem help Mayann see that it’s people that make things important, not the items themselves.

Going beyond one’s comfort zone to experience new and wonderful places and people is what Mayann’s Train Ride is all about but it’s also about milestones in one’s life, whether it be carrying one’s first purse or experiencing the Statue of Liberty or seeing your first black doll.  The Honourable Mayann Francis shares these moments with young readers and offers a sweet story of humble beginnings for a woman who achieved so much.  I don’t know Tamara Thiébaux Heikalo’s artwork but I should have as Mayann’s Train Ride is the ninth book for which she has provided illustrations.  Her ink-outlined watercolours provide a charming nostalgic quality to the story, perfect for the 1950s.  From the girls’ clothing and the bows in their hair, to their mother’s prim and proper suits, and of course the purses, Tamara Thiébaux Heikalo gets the tone and the colours and the quality of the setting and characters perfect, as are her depictions of important places like Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.

Mayann’s Train Ride may be a trip down memory lane for The Honourable Mayann Francis but it will read as a new adventure for children who will recognize its importance, right down to the little green purse.

The Boundless

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443410328 

336 pp.

Ages 10-16

April, 2014

"ALL ABOARD... The Boundless for a mesmerizing adventure of historical proportions, with death-defying leaps of faith, Sasquatch encounters, illusions of the fourth dimension and murderous employees looking for the gold after death.  Leaving now for its first journey. Get on board now to be one of the first to enjoy this newest series by award-winning author Kenneth Oppel."

Life changes for Will Everett and his family after Will helps in the hammering of the last spike of the CPR railway in British Columbia and his father saves the life of Cornelius Van Horne, president of the CPR, in an avalanche.  Three years later James Everett is in charge of the Boundless, the seven-mile long train of spectacular design created by Van Horne, who is now ensconced in a secured and guarded funeral car near the front of the train.  And, on its maiden voyage, Will is enjoying the amenities of first class and looking to reacquaint himself with a young wirewalker/escape artist, Maren, travelling with Zirkus Dante, the circus of Mr. Dorian, the man who'd captured a young sasquatch after that avalanche years earlier.

Beyond the incredible opportunity of travelling on the longest and most powerful train in the world, essentially pulling a city of nine hundred and eighty-seven cars, Will enjoys the opportunity to experience the towns of vendors that arise to service the train's passengers, the wilds of the Canadian landscape with its supernatural creatures including the muskeg hag, the Wendigo and the sasquatch, and convince his father that he should be allowed to attend art school in San Francisco.  But Will places himself in a dangerous position when, at a stop, he recovers a key dropped by the funeral car's guard moments before the man is stabbed by a man Will recognizes.  Barely catching the caboose at the end of the train, Will must use all his skills and wits and trust a few new friends if he is to stay alive and find his way back to his father in the locomotive.

The Boundless is an endless adventure of hopping train cars, outsmarting murderous fiends, marvelling at unforeseen inventions, surviving encounters with mythical creatures and trusting some and not others, including a first love.  Never does Kenneth Oppel make you believe that Will can easily survive this drama.  Readers will be holding their breaths wondering which fall will kill Will or leave him in the Boundless' wake. Or whether Mr. Dorian's plan will save him or put others in jeopardy.  Or whether every brakeman on the Boundless is a threat.  Or whether Will's father, miles away at the front of the train, knows anything of the goings-on in the funeral car and beyond.  And I'll be surprised if you don't start wondering which pieces of Canadian history are valid and accurate. Cornelius Van Horne, Sam Steele, Simon Fraser and Donald Smith and others make appearances in The Boundless, though they are legitimate characters who helped in the making of our nation.  But what of the golden spike?

Yep.  The Boundless has all that and more. And only reading Kenneth Oppel's newest steampunk will allow you some opportunity to answer those questions or at least make an attempt at it. So get on board with reading The Boundless, a phenomenon of engineering and text, courtesy of the imagination and pen of one of Canada's finest writers for young people.